From the author of

Apple's new iPhoto for iOS app ($4.99) plays up the brilliance of the third-generation iPad's new high-resolution Retina display. If you're familiar with the desktop version of iPhoto, you'll find this mobile version very different, including offering some features that the desktop version still lacks.

NOTE

iPhoto also works with the iPad 2, but not with the original iPad, due to memory and processor limitations.

Why should you use iPhoto on your iPad? The advantage to having a tool like iPhoto for iOS is that it's likely to be at hand soon after you shoot your photos. You don't have to wait until you get back to your desktop computer to start working with your images. This article points out several handy features of iPhoto that you can use to improve your photos while you're still on location—or vacation.

Find and Group Photos

iPhoto is primarily a photo editor, but it also has some great features for locating and reviewing the images you want to edit. For example, if you shoot in your camera's "burst" mode, you end up with handfuls of what appear to be duplicates but actually are slightly different. Double-tap a thumbnail in the sidebar to select all visually similar images (see Figure 1).

TIP

When you're viewing iPhoto in the iPad's portrait orientation, the sidebar appears at the bottom of the screen.

To review your images at a larger size, tap one of the images to bring it to the forefront (see Figure 2). You can swipe left and right to switch between the selected images, or drag one down to deselect it.

Speaking of the thumbnail sidebar, you can view as many as three columns at a time. Using the resizing control (three lines that appear next to the number of visible photos, as if they were physical grooves where you could place your finger), drag to change the number of columns. Alternatively, you can tap the Show or Hide Thumbnail Grid button to hide the thumbnails entirely and use more screen space for the selected image.